The new face you often see at Diocesan House, either punching away at a typewriter or bending in deep devotion before the copy machine, belongs to The Rev. John Edmunds, director of our just-launched Diaconate Studies Program. His task at the moment is to pull together the curriculum, faculty and finances which, God willing, will place our diocese at the forefront of re-establishing the Deacon as a full and complete ordained minister of the church, with functions complementary to-- yet distinct from-- those of bishop and priest. These are not deacons on the way to the priesthood, but (as in Apostolic times) people set apart by ordination to live and serve Christ and His Church in our Lord's example: "I am among you as One who Serveth." In parishes, institutions and in the secular world, the ministry of this diocese will be thrillingly enlarged. And John is the man who is charged with getting all of this going.
Born in Concord, New Hampshire, John grew up in Saint Paul's School, where his father was a master. His interest in the priesthood began in Saint Paul's lovely Gothic chapel -- "Not the religion, but the aesthetics." The beauty of the place, the stateliness of the liturgy, and mostly the excellence of the music (under Channing Lefebvre, former organist at St. John The Divine, New York City) all touched him deeply. Intellectually, an assigned term paper on the Oxford Movement and the Catholic revival in Anglicanism drew him on. Attending Carleton College in Northfield, MN., he was introduced to Kiierkegaard, and Fear and Trembling familiarized him with an even deeper appreciation of the Christian life.
By graduation time, he had decided to go on to seminary, but the bishop of Massachusetts wanted him to have a more diverse experience and sent him to work in the Youth Ministries Program of the Church of the Redeemer, Houston-- a once prosperous inner city parish which was in transition. "This was my gas station ministry," he says. "To support myself I pumped gas. The station was a gathering place for poor whites and Hispanics and Episcopalianism, with a pentecostal flavor appealed to the gangs who lived there." The parish grew and John grew.
He entered ETS (now EDS) in Cambridge in the fall of 1965, shortly after seminarian Jonathan Daniels was martyred in Mississippi-- a profound experience for the students and faculty there. John Coburn,( now Bishop of Massachusetts ) was dean at ETS at the time and assigned John to the Mattapoisett General Hospital, a geriatric hospital just outside Boston and also worked on a text for the Diocesan Human Relations Committee while in seminary.
He was ordained a priest and served for several years as curate in South Weymouth. Then followed 4 years as chaplain at the Pomfret School in Connecticut and an equal time doing Clinical Pastoral Training in the Washington area, first as Chaplain Intern at the Medical College in Virginia, then as Chaplain of the Delaware Street Hospital and at the Bethany Medical Center. These provided him with experience in the problems of minorities, criminals and adolescents.
In late 1978, he acquired a house in Barrington, RI, and a position in C.E.T.A. as a director of the East Providence Self Help Program. When budgetary problems reduced this program , John was introduced to the waste removal problems in Barrington, and became one of the most highly educated "Sanitation Engineers" ever to work in that community. (Be it known that "sanitation engineers" go by much less exalted titles in less affluent areas!) He availed himself of the parish consultants training offered by our Diocese. Now in addition to his new responsibility, he is currently interim rector of St. George's, Central Falls.
"My vocation is the be a priest and an educator," says Fr. Edmunds, "and I am happy and content in doing what I am doing right now."
We feel assured that his varied experience has prepared him well, and will watch with prayers and keen interest his leadership in the Deacon's Training Program.
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